Published in:
01-09-2017 | Computed Tomography
Head CT: Image quality improvement with ASIR-V using a reduced radiation dose protocol for children
Published in: European Radiology | Issue 9/2017
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Objective
To investigate the quality of images reconstructed with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction V (ASIR-V), using pediatric head CT protocols.
Methods
A phantom was scanned at decreasing 20% mA intervals using our standard pediatric head CT protocols. Each study was then reconstructed at 10% ASIR-V intervals. After the phantom study, we reduced mA by 10% in the protocol for <3-year-old patients and applied 30% ASIR-V and by 30% in the protocol for 3- to 15-year-old patients and applied 40% ASIR-V.
Results
Increasing the percentage of ASIR-V resulted in lower noise and higher contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and preserved spatial resolution in the phantom study. Compared to a conventional-protocol, reduced-dose protocol with ASIR-V achieved 12.8% to 34.0% of dose reduction and showed images of lower noise (9.22 vs. 10.73, P = 0.043) and higher CNR in different levels (centrum semiovale, 2.14 vs. 1.52, P = 0.003; basal ganglia, 1.46 vs. 1.07, P = 0.001; and cerebellum, 2.18 vs. 1.33, P < 0.001). Qualitative analysis showed higher gray-white matter differentiation and sharpness and preserved overall diagnostic quality in the images with ASIR-V.
Conclusions
Use of ASIR-V allowed a 12.8% to 34.0% dose reduction in each age group with potential to improve image quality.
Key points
• It is possible to reduce radiation dose and improve image quality with ASIR-V.
• We improved noise and CNR and decreased radiation dose.
• Sharpness improved with ASIR-V.
• Total radiation dose was decreased by 12.8% to 34.0%.